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Pocket Aces creates cocktail anthem for Bacardi NH7 Weekender
MUMBAI: Bringing the thrill of popular music festivals home, Gobble, a lifestyle channel by Pocket Aces, has created a cocktail anthem for Bacardi NH7 Weekender in collaboration with OML Entertainment. The endeavour features independent musician Ambika Nayak and acapella group Instrumen to demonstrate two easy yet delicious cocktail recipes that can be mastered at home using Bacardi Rum.
The video, which was released ahead of the Bacardi NH7 Weekender on Gobble’s YouTube, Facebook and Instagram pages, saw Ambika Nayak take viewers through quick cocktail preparations – an aam panna mojito, and a piña colada. She was accompanied by acapella artists from the Instrumen group who created the perfect sound using their beatboxing skills and vocals to emulate instruments and unusual beats while also lending their melodious voices to the lyrics. The sound of the track complimented the visuals of the video, bringing out the young and upbeat vibe of the Bacardi NH7 Weekender. Since its release, the foot-tapping video has caught the nerve of netizens.
Bacardi India and southeast Asia senior brand manager Sameeksha Uniyal said, “For over a decade we’ve been hosting Bacardi NH7 Weekender, that brings alive different music, food and culture experiences for audiences to come together and do what moves them. In this year’s digital avatar, we wanted to leave no stone unturned in getting everyone in the Weekender state of mind. So, we partnered with Gobble for India’s first-ever cocktail anthem, that shows some delicious cocktails to get the party going.”
Gobble channel manager Sonalika Mehra said, “This year’s Bacardi NH7 Weekender focused on bringing the community together in a virtual world with exceptional performances from indie as well as international artists. This fits well into Gobble’s ethos of being a platform for young talented independent creators to deliver engaging content that is fun, quirky, and relatable to our audience. When we came up with the idea for an acapella cocktail anthem, we were confident that this would work well with Bacardi NH7 Weekender’s positioning, while being able to generate the right buzz among its target audiences. The success of the cocktail anthem is an indication that we are on the right path, and the sky is the limit when it comes to our creative avenues to work with our partner brands.”
MAM
‘You packed my parachute’: Avinash Kaul’s farewell salutes Network18’s unsung thousands
The outgoing chief’s LinkedIn post skips the boardroom tributes and goes straight to the security guards, drivers and office boys who kept the machine running
MUMBAI: Most farewell posts by senior media executives follow a familiar script: gratitude to leadership, a nod to the team, a hint of what lies ahead. Avinash Kaul’s is not that post.
Writing on LinkedIn on his last day at Network18 Media & Investments, where he spent nearly 12 years rising to chief executive, Kaul bypassed the boardroom entirely and directed his most heartfelt words at the people furthest from it: the security guard who greeted him before the building was fully awake, the fleet staff who drove him to airports at ungodly hours, the office assistants, the housekeeping teams, and the administrators who, as he put it, “held ten thousand invisible threads so the rest of us could look organised.”
“You packed my parachute,” he wrote. “Every day. Without fanfare, recognition, or ever asking for it.”
It was a striking note from a man who leaves behind a considerable operational record. Kaul joined Network18 managing three channels and exits with responsibility for 20, alongside a publishing business, a growing connected television footprint, and what he says is the highest revenue and highest channel share in the group’s history. He was quick to deflect the credit. “Not because of me. Because of 4,000 people who showed up, every day, in every department, across the country.”
To content teams across India, he issued a reminder that carries some weight given the pressures Indian news media currently faces. “Keep being custodians of trust for 700 million people. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing.”
To colleagues in revenue and ratings who found him relentless and hard to satisfy, he was unapologetic but generous. “There was never a single moment of ill intent in my heart. Everything I pushed you towards came from one belief – that you were stronger than you knew, and I was not willing to let you settle for less than your real capability.” Those who believed him, he said, flew. Those who did not taught him to be a better communicator. He was grateful to both.
On what comes next, he offered a hint wrapped in metaphor. Something is being built, he said, prepared for “the way you pack a bag before a long climb. Not out of restlessness. Out of readiness.”
In a media landscape that rarely pauses to acknowledge the people who keep the lights on, it was, at the very least, a different kind of goodbye.
